Tattoos are created by injecting ink into the skin. Today, in most cases, the injection of the ink is done by one or more solid needles which are attached to a device (referred to hereinafter as “skin puncturing device”). Preferably, but not limitatively, the skin puncturing device is a hand-held device. The skin puncturing device moves the needle along the longitudinal axis of the device, similar to the movement of a needle in a sewing machine. Usually the skin puncturing device moves the needle at a rate of several vibrations per minute (e.g., the needles may puncture the skin at the rate of 50 to 3,000 times per minute). Prior to the penetration of the needle into the skin, the needle is dipped in a suitable solution which contains pigment (e.g., ink) and then this solution is sucked up through a suitable tube system of the skin puncturing device. After receiving the solution the skin puncturing device is used to puncture the top layer of the skin and injects insoluble, micrometer-sized particles of ink into the dermal layer of skin (i.e., dermis), preferably, about one millimeter deep. As a result, the ink is not located in the epidermis, but it infiltrates the cells in the dermis. Since the cells of the dermis are relatively fixed, the tattoo's ink remains at the dermis, thereby permanently tattooing the skin.
For a variety of reasons, there are people who wish to remove a tattoo (or other pigment) from their skin. However, because tattoos become an integral part of the cells in the dermis, removing them is not an easy task. In the prior art several methods for removing tattoos have been suggested, which, however are usually invasive; some methods even require surgery and may also be painful. Such known methods are:                Dermabrasion, wherein skin is “sanded” (i.e., abraded) to remove the surface which contains the tattoo;        Cryosurgery, wherein the area where the tattoo is located is frozen prior to its removal; and        Excision, wherein the dermatologic surgeon removes the tattoo with a scalpel and closes the wound with stitches (In some cases involving large tattoos, a skin graft from another part of the body may be necessary).        
However, such tattoo-removal methods are painful and may also create scars.
Other methods for tattoo removal use lasers. Lasers offer a bloodless alternative to the abovementioned methods and may also have fewer side effects. Each removal procedure is done in a single treatment, or in a series of treatments. Patients may or may not require topical or local anesthesia. Lasers remove tattoos by producing short pulses of intense light, which pass through the top layers of the skin and are then selectively absorbed by the tattoo pigment. This laser energy causes the tattoo pigment to be fragmented into smaller particles, which are then removed by the body's immune system. However, there is still a possibility that using a laser may cause scarring. Furthermore, it is difficult with a laser to remove pigments of yellow and green. Such colors selectively absorb laser light and can only be treated by selected lasers based on the pigment color. Moreover, there are side effects of laser procedures which may cause hyper pigmentation, or an abundance of color in the skin at the treatment site, and hypo pigmentation, where the treated area lacks normal skin color.
In addition, tattoo removal using each of the above methods is long and expensive.
All the methods described above have not yet provided satisfactory solutions to the problem of removing a pigmented section of skin by simple means.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for removing a pigmented section of skin while overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for removing a pigmented section of skin at a relatively low cost.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.